The field of this invention relates to an apparatus for concentrating and collecting of solar energy and ambient energy for the conversion thereof to heat energy for the purpose of raising the temperature of a fluid. The present invention relates to a more efficient apparatus for achieving the above result.
Energy emitted from the sun is in the form of radiation which arrives at the earth with a wavelength distribution comprising about three percent ultraviolet rays, forty two percent visible light rays and about fifty five percent infrared rays. It is well known that surfaces exposed to the sun collect at least, to some degree, the solar radiation and that the adsorption of this radiation results in a heating of the material constituting the surface.
In the past there have been many attempts to collect and utilize pollution-free, essentially nonconsumable solar energy to meet energy needs. Recently, much attention has been directed to the conversion and utilization of solar energy because of the realization that fossil fuels are exhaustable and that the burning of these fuels produces pollution. Solar energy, on the other hand, is inexhaustable.
Recently, the shortage of fossil fuels, particularly oil and the high cost thereof, have sparked new attempts at harnessing the energy of the sun. These attempts are generally directed to focusing systems, most using reflecting collectors and including sun tracking systems. There has been a consistent effort to design such solar energy collectors to be as efficient as possible.
A conventional way for the collecting the solar energy employs dark colored panels which are to absorb the solar radiation and combining these panels with a means circulating a heat carrying fluid in a heat exchanging manner within the panels. It is known to improve the efficiency of these panels by placing one or more glass plates above the panels to produce a green-house effect for reducing heat losses. However, previously the efficiency of such systems is normally no more than thirty to sixty percent.
A common use for solar energy collector systems is to heat water. This heated water can be utilized in various ways. One way is to function as a preheater for a home water heater. Another common way is to function as a swimming pool heater. The present invention has been found to be particularly useful in the heating of water, but it is to be understood that the present invention can be applied to the heating of any substance, whether liquid, gas or solid.